Iron Man 2: Movie Review

While "Iron Man 2" didn't live up to its predecessor I still had a lot of fun with this one. It does become victim to a bit of the sequel blues, but what is bad about the movie isn't overwhelming. The directing is good. Acting is tops. Story is cool.

Director Jon Favreau didn't get too nutty here. He took what he knew worked, and what people loved about the first movie, and did it again. However, he does this in a way that he avoids becoming a one trick pony. I thought his work was nicely done.

I could have done entirely without Samuel L. Jackson's cameo as Nick Fury. I thought the whole thing was incredibly stupid. I could have used less-to-zero of Nick Fury, and more-to-a lot more of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. I thought he and his character were great, but honestly I would have liked to see a lot more screen time with him, and more character development.

Robert Downey Jr. is back, and more wonderful than ever. He's a bit more of an ass in this movie than in the first, but it didn't bug me. The replacement of Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle I thought was great because no matter what Don Cheadle does, he's awesome. Sam Rockwell was a great addition as well.

The story was cool, and a nice natural progression in my opinion. It was simple, and didn't get too loaded down with potentially boring details.

The action was great, but honestly there wasn't enough of it. If a second movie in a series is to represent the second act of a screenplay (which it often does) we're supposed to see the central character really struggle, and go down and out. We're supposed to see a lot more conflict, and action, but I didn't really get that sense from this movie. I could have used more ass kicking.